Erin Cebula: Re-connecting

Written by Lucy Lau

Photography: Alfonso Arnold

Make-Up: Ana Viseroiu

Stylist: Sarah D’Arcey

All Clothing Supplied by Nordstrom Vancouver

Compared to the past whirlwind of a decade—a period comprised of regular encounters with stars like Michael Bublé and Chris
Martin, and dizzying trips to locales as far away as Fiji, Ireland, and Cambodia—this last year for Erin Cebula has been pretty laidback. Routine, even. But the B.C.–based television host, writer, and producer wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I came back [to Vancouver] and decided to give myself permission to basically slow down,” she says. “That’s been my focus for 2018.”

A graduate of the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s broadcast-journalism program, Cebula got her on-air start as an arts-and-entertainment reporter for Global TV in 2000. These days, however, she’s best known for her work on Entertainment Canada, where she held the role of West Coast correspondent for 12 years. During that time, she hosted and produced countless celebrity segments, carving out a comfortable niche through her in-depth—and exceptional—coverage of popular series like Survivor, Vikings, and Outlander.

When Cebula was let go from that position last summer due to internal restructuring, she took it as an opportunity to re-evaluate her health and habits. The pace she was operating at wasn’t sustainable, she reflects, and she was starting to see it in her well-being. As a result, the Aldergrove-born personality embarked on a three-month fitness-and-wellness challenge, and began investing heavily in self-care—whether that meant prioritizing exercise or just spending quality time with her partner, Shawn, and rescue pup, Pickles, in their Mount Pleasant home.

“My energy has just gone through the roof, and I would say my relationships have really changed in a lot of positive ways, too,” Cebula says of the time off. “It’s a real luxury to have that time to devote to yourself—and not everyone can—but, man, what a difference it makes in everything.”

That’s not to say that Cebula has pumped the brakes on her broadcast career. The amiable host is Global TV’s “go-to gal” for lifestyle content, and she continues to appear in radio and TV spots for the B.C. Children’s Hospital Dream Lottery, a cause she’s supported for a decade. Travel remains a large part of the 43-year-old’s life, too—though now on her own terms.

Last year, she and her husband toured Kenya, South Africa, and Madagascar—destinations that the couple’s late mothers had dreamt of exploring—and she has plans to tackle Mexico, Poland, and Croatia in the near future. Tacked on Cebula’s dream-board is also the working name of an island retreat she hopes to open in B.C. somewhere down the line. She envisions a remote-but-still-accessible romantic hideaway, where stressed-out city folks or those in high-pressure jobs—like she once was—can go to unwind and reconnect with loved ones.   

“I want it to be this beautiful place that makes it feel like you’re in another world,” she explains. “That’s the next goal.” For now, Cebula isn’t thinking too much about the details. She’s taking life day by day—and, yes, slowing down to smell the roses whenever she can. “I like the magic of the universe,” she says. “I like to see what comes at me, too, when I just relax.”